Samara Boxing Federation President Detained, Trails Lead to Tambov
The athlete headed the boxing federation for many years
A new sports-criminal scandal is brewing in Samara Oblast. At its center is the honorary president of the regional boxing federation, Andrei Korolev.
As blogger Ksenia Shtefan reported in her Telegram channel, the athlete was detained this week.
«According to sources, he may be checked for involvement in the »Korolevskie« group. The special operation was carried out by security forces from Moscow, and Korolev himself has already been taken to the capital for investigative actions,» explained Ksenia Shtefan.
Andrei Korolev was born in 1971 in Kuibyshev (now Samara). In 2005, he received a higher education in law from the Academy of National Economy under the Government of the Russian Federation. A year later, he headed the public organization «Boxing Federation of Samara Oblast.» Andrei Korolev held this post until 2016. After that, he was elected honorary president of the organization. In 2017, he was elected president of the World Fudokan Karate-Do Federation for a term of 5 years. At the same time, the athlete was a member of other public organizations, for example, the council of the Samara Law Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia (SLI FPS Russia) and the council for the development of physical culture and sports under the Ministry of Sports of Samara Oblast. In 2021, Andrei Korolev became an expert on social policy, healthcare, healthy lifestyle, and sports in the regional public chamber.
The author of the Telegram channel «Banditskaya Samara» (Bandit Samara), Oleg Ivanets, supplemented the information from his colleague.
«On 22 January 2026, a group of employees of the Investigative Committee and operatives of the FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, who arrived from Moscow, conducted searches at the residences of Andrei Korolev and persons close to him in the 1990s, who, according to operational data, were part of his group,» according to a message in «Banditskaya Samara.»
Oleg Ivanets suggests that Andrei Korolev could have headed a criminal group of a certain «Korol» (King). Also, according to the blogger, the searches could be related to another criminal case, namely the gang of Oleg Sirotenko (also known as «Sirota» (Orphan)).
The author of «Banditskaya Samara» shared the opinion that the athlete could have been involved in the murder of the head of the criminal police of Tambov, Valery Dzhuraev. The security official was killed in 2000 near the regional hospital. Unidentified persons shot up the policeman«s car with automatic weapons and fled. Doctors tried to save Valery Dzhuraev, but the wounds were fatal.
For many years, this murder was considered unsolved. Now, investigators have managed to find one of the suspects. For the duration of the preliminary investigation, Andrei Korolev was sent to a pre-trial detention center (SIZO). This decision was made by the Leninsky District Court of Tambov.
Updated: representatives of the Samara Law Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service (SLI FPS) commented on the information about a possible connection between Andrei Korolev and the university«s public council.
«This does not correspond to reality. The public council of the SLI FPS Russia was created in 2022. Its chairman is Dmitry Kholin, who is currently serving in the armed forces in the special military operation. Andrei Korolev is not a member of the public council of the Samara Law Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia and has no relation to the university,» the university«s press service said.
